Me and my camera in someone else’s town, my EU, my Madrid
This week’s photographs are all from the magnificent city which is Madrid. (to see full gallery click here).
One of the things that appealed about Madrid is it didn’t feel like it had been ravaged by high rents and gentrification. It felt affordable and the centre was still bustling with locals who lived there. It just had a great vibe. Buzzing but relaxed. Such a beautiful combo. There was a headline in London’s Metro newspaper a while back which stated that it was cheaper to live in Madrid and commute to London every day than it was to live there. So within moments of being there I loved it and fantasised about moving there and up until last Friday, that was a possibility. But not anymore. The snapped subjects featured all seem to have the same accusatory look on their face: what the hell have you done? And I can’t but ask the same question, as indeed are half the population.
When I first heard result there was just one phrase which ran through my head. Country Suicide. It didn’t feel like there has ever been a more self-destructive act by a nation in peace time history. Everyone’s now boshing out their opinions as to what exactly happened, experts, pundits, politicians, you name it, we’re all wracking out brains trying to work out how exactly we catapulted ourselves into this horrendous mess.
You could blame David Cameron for recklessly and arrogantly calling this referendum as a power play within his own party with no concern for the potential repercussions for this country.
You could blame Boris Johnson for recklessly and arrogantly joining the ‘Leave’ campaign as a power play within his own party with no concern for the potential repercussions for this country.
You could blame Nigel Farage for stoking the flames of racial hatred, fuelling people’s irrational fears about immigration and using outright lies to convince people to vote ‘leave’.
You could blame newspapers such as the Mail and the Sun for stoking the flames of racial hatred fuelling people’s irrational fears about immigration and endorsing outright lies to convince people into voting ‘leave’.
You could blame the Remain campaign for using scaremonger tactics and only presenting negative consequences for leaving Europe rather than present it as a positive force in our lives.
You could blame the inefficacy of the establishment telling people who have nothing that they will be worse off and expect it to have an impact.
You could blame the Elite for suggesting that ‘trickledown economics’ worked when they made sure it was only ever themselves that profited leading huge sways of the population to use their vote to cry out ‘fuck you’ in a burst of anti-establishment rage.
You could blame the current Government for presenting the bizarre paradox of offering our nation the right to choose then telling us how to vote.
You could blame the current Government for the confusing proposition of calling something that they didn’t want and then expect a nation, a majority of whom they have squeezed dry with austerity cuts and whose voice they have systematically ignored throughout their time in office to then get behind them.
You could blame the Remainers whose sense of complacency to a general lack of activity in comparison to the Leavers.
You could blame the Leavers who just voted to show their discontent against a vast array of factors without even knowing what they were really voting for. (I spoke to someone who voted Leave “to keep the ‘”Pakis and the Chinese out”. Mate, the clue’s in the title, they’re from Pakistan and China which, for the record, are in Asia not Europe)
You could blame the Leavers who just voted as a protest thinking Remain would definitely win.
You could blame the older generation who voted in an attempt to reclaim the country of their youth, regardless of the fact that it no longer exists and regardless of the fact that it will affect this country for generations to come when they are no longer even here.
You could blame the apathetic youth for not voting (only 38% turnout in 18-24s compared with 80% of over 65s) or taking an active stance in the society they live in which effectively allowed the result to be defined by an older generation.
You could blame the racists of this country who used this referendum to turn on immigrants and blame them for all the ills in our society (obvs never heard that one before)
You could blame the fact that the population of this country were never consulted or explained the reason or consequence of huge influxes of immigration leading to hostility and a sense that their world was being altered against their will.
You could blame Corbyn for not doing enough (he gets blamed for everything else, why not this too?)
You could blame the London bubble for turning their back on the rest of the country who have been ignored and marginalised for decades as capital city prosperity and opportunities were denied to them creating rising resentment and massive inequality.
You could blame all of these people and you would be mostly be right on all counts but but being right is not going to get us out of this mess. Truth is, there are so many factors & players involved to create this perfect shit storm that no-one is really totally to blame and we are all ultimately responsible.
Recriminations will get us absolutely nowhere. We have to now find a solution together. We’re just gonna have to eat shit and deal with it. The tragedy is that this has caused a huge divisive gulf to open up between different sections of the population, full of blame & resentment against each other. Whereas an undeniable proportion of ‘outers’ voted driven by a mistrust of foreigners there is now a massive mistrust amongst each other. Which way did you vote? What side are you on? The most fucked up thing is uptil this point we felt relatively together as a nation but it turns out that was clearly an illusion.
The worst thing of all is that, we have galvanised the far right in other European countries to fight for their own independence and to promote racial hatred. What a horrendous thing to be responsible for. Modern Britain, until this result, stood for inclusion and tolerance and a chance at a decent life for all. Refugees, who had risked their life to get out of their war torn countries did not want to stop until they got to Britain because we represented real opportunity to start anew and not be held back and marginalised just because you are an immigrant. The saddest thing is that now, we will become known as a country that want immigrants out and this is from a country that led the fight against Facism and everything it represented in World War 2. If Facism went on the march again and another world war broke out you now even have to question what side would we be on?
As the quote from The Dark Knight states: You either die a hero or live long enough to become the bad guy
We cannot become the bad guys. Its too twisted.
p.s when am I going to wake up?